After hearing rumors that a "possum-like" rat in the trees cracked coconuts with it's teeth, Mammalogist Tyrone Lavery led a search for the rodent. After years spent looking, Lavery's team found the rat running out of a fallen tree.

“As soon as I examined the specimen, I knew it was something different,” Lavery said in a statement. “There are only eight known species of native rat from the Solomon Islands, and looking at the features on its skull, I could rule out a bunch of species right away.”

Most rats in America weigh less than a half a pound. The uromys vika can be four times that size.

The species was so difficult to find partly because it can live in 30-foot-tall trees.

The rat will be designated as Critically Endangered because of its rarity and the threat to its rainforest habitat.